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The 2016 Republican presidential contest has barely begun and it has already grown alternately tiresome and old or just downright scary. As a Democrat, I might be pleased, but as an American, I am deeply troubled. I just want it to end.

The EU was created to expand democracy, boost economic growth, and contain Germany within a democratic whole. Instead, it is destroying democracy, crushing growth, and leaving Germany's most churlish impulses to rule Europe. Before it is over, one of history's noblest experiments in enlightened statecraft could end in ruins.

It seems likely that the nominees in 2016 will be Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton. After all, the ruling class still controls America. But the revolt against the ruling class won't end with the 2016 election, regardless. Which means the ruling class will have to change the way it rules America. Or it won't rule too much longer.

The vice presidency is both a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing if you are running for your party's nomination. Then it turns into a curse when you run in the general election. Any Democrat who gets the nomination next year will face the charge that he, or she, represents a third term for Obama. With Biden, the charge will stick.

Years ago, Rev. Jesse Jackson would open up several of his speeches by loudly asking, "What time is it?" He would answer his own question by responding, "Nation time!" Well, it's "Nation time" again. Only this time, it is more urgent.

The Times could have insisted on seeing the documents they were describing. Or, if the Times spoke with Republicans in Congress, even off the record, they could have checked their facts with me or other Committee Democrats. Unfortunately, this rush to print anonymous, unverified claims against Secretary Clinton is not unique.

Next week, the Environmental Protection Agency is expected to announce what may be the Obama administration's most far-reaching climate change initiative: its final rule for cleaning up existing electric power plants. Dubbed the Clean Power Plan, it will require each state to submit its own individual strategy for cutting emissions.

Donors and staff of the Koch brothers political network are descending on the St. Regis Monarch Bay Resort for their yearly summer seminar. Tables have been brought out onto the Grand Lawn; security personnel roam the halls; and Charles Koch himself has arrived.

It's tough to represent the hopes of Americans hurt by entrenched political interests when you've taken money from Donald Trump, or you've already run a campaign ad in 2008 that utilizes a "racist sub-message." For these reasons, Clinton's problem with white liberals, and Sanders's eventual appeal to minority voters, will enable Vermont's Senator to win the Democratic nomination.

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, one of the world's leading peace and justice advocates, has called Bryan Stevenson "America's Nelson Mandela." He has gotten innocent men off death row, successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court multiple times, including to ban "death sentences."

In order to truly make our communities safer, we must make sure that people who have served their time are able to fully and productively engage in our society -- whether through education or employment or some other constructive means.

Florida legislators have lost their way on the issue of guns. There is a constitutional right (both state and federal) to own a gun. I get it! But the Second Amendment doesn't trump the First Amendment: The two are not even in conflict.

Secretary of State John Kerry and a team of skilled negotiators achieved a national security miracle: a diplomatic deal that blocks Iran's path to a nuclear bomb. This should be a cause for celebration in both Washington and Jerusalem. Yet for Republicans in Congress, it is not.

The U.S. military is now helping Turkey's hardliners achieve their goals against the very Kurdish fighters whose close coordination with U.S. bombers have pushed ISIS back from Kobane and disrupted its supply lines.

Van Hollen also addressed his hawkish colleagues in Congress, many of whom decried the deal even before fully reading it, who have been quick to move the goalposts of the agreement to include everything Iran does that we find objectionable.

At a time when apathy reigns and far too many think it's someone else's job to figure out what's happening with our government, our laws, our policies, and our representatives, I think it's critical that as many people as possible get informed. But my problem? Zealots. Fanatics.

The people who shed crocodile tears about health care rationing five years ago don't talk about the rationing that we have now (and had then), but they were right to be outraged. We should all be outraged that, in the richest country on the planet, people are denied needed care on the basis of wealth and income.

Even for those who support the KXL pipeline, would anybody be willing to stand behind a high-risk, badly built one? Let alone one designed to shuttle dirty tar sands crude to Gulf Coast refineries and export terminals, which would raise gas prices at home.

President Obama's strong words in Nairobi about civil society haven't been matched during similar trips to Riyadh, despite the Saudi Arabian government's violent repression of human rights. This double standard does immense damage to the U.S. government's credibility in the world, stifling its international capacity to lead on human rights.